Hans Koebel
Hans Körbel (born June 2, 1909 in Höchst am Main , † March 7, 1947 in Hameln ) was a German doctor . As the senior company doctor at the Volkswagen factory during the Nazi era , he was responsible for the deaths of numerous children of forced laborers .
Life
From 1943 on, Körbel, a doctor of medicine, was also the chief company doctor responsible for looking after the children of forced laborers . At the same time he was SS-Sturmbannführer . Until June 1944, the children, mostly infants, were housed in the KdF town near Fallersleben - Wolfsburg from 1945 onwards - and then in the Rorien children's camp about twelve kilometers outside of town. Over 300 children died in the camp due to the catastrophic hygienic conditions; hardly a child survived.
Initially, Körbel visited the camp every day. Later he only appeared weekly to issue the death certificates. He did nothing about the causes of the deaths. After the end of the Second World War he was arrested by the British occupation authorities and sentenced to death in June 1946 in a war crimes trial in Helmstedt for willful neglect ("willful neglect") . In 1947 he was in prison Hameln by train executed . Numerous Germans had previously asked for mercy for Körbel. An evangelical pastor claimed that Körbel “devoted himself to the children” and was “an opponent of the regime”.
Körbel was the only member of the management team at the Volkswagen factory to be sentenced to death.
aftermath
The writer Horst Mönnich wrote in his book Die Autostadt, published in 1951 , that Körbel was “innocently driven to death”.
The Briton John Murdoch, who lives in Wolfsburg, wrote the play The Children of Dr. Basket. It is occasionally performed in Wolfsburg and other locations by Murdoch's theater company.
literature
- Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 , 4th edition, Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Hartwig Hohnsbein: Information on Hans Körbel ( Memento from January 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Journal of Socialism. 4/2012 (PDF), accessed December 30, 2014
- ↑ Brief description of the piece , accessed on December 30, 2014
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Koebel, Hans |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German doctor and war criminal |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 2, 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | High on the Main |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 7, 1947 |
| Place of death | Hamelin |